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3.3 New Moon
With the death of the Maharaja, our heroes decided to take some time to recover from their recent exploits. Veller decided to take this time to repair the ship as well. It is over the course of the week that a number of things unfolded. In brief: Sajaina felt guilty that she had, by running away from home, deprived her sister the opportunity to adopt and raise one of the Maharaja's children. She thus had Thain magically reverse her sister's infertility. Sajaina told Wrynn who mentioned it to Travize. Travize and Sajaina had an argument about it. They have mostly made up by the end of the week, deciding to hope together that Sajaina's decision was for the better rather than the worse. As a result of Wrynn's telling Travize about her family business, Sajaina lost what respect she had for the woman. She approached Karhanza to ask whether it would be possible to unbind her from Wrynn if she decided she had had enough of her in the near future. Gruk proposed to Perlapae (Yay!). Perlapae has not yet given a definitive answer (awww). Baygrith took some time to inventing few things and contributed to the improvement of the Ship Formerly Known As Yggon's Wrath's engines. Thain helped Salachi to gain more control over his “squishiness,” allowing him to perform more like a rubber man than a putty one. Additionally, near the end of the week off, Travize developed the ability to project a telepathic bond with any person he knows thanks to Dal McLaurin's tutelage- a power which works around Steve's restriction against the Collective Bond. One the subject of The Collective, Sal's bond was finally solidified, making him an official member! One issue that came up over the course of their time off outweighed others, however. The party too the time to confront Thain on the nature of the 'philosophical disagreement' that caused him to kill his fellow Ascendant, Ronya. Thain informed them that he and Ronya had been constantly debating whether or not they should tell Wrynn which memories Albert had taken from her. Indeed, Albert had been the one to lead the movement calling for the wiping of Wrynn's memories- memories Thain believed were so dangerous that he could not allow them to be returned. He had killed Ronya because she wanted to give Wrynn the details. Predictably, Thain refused to give the part any details, lest they find their way back to Wrynn. They agreed not to press the issue at the moment, but their would come a time when they would carefully consider whether or not forcing Thain to divulge those secrets was worth it. Importantly, while our heroes were resting, their friends (Ithal, Dal'evrin, Alister, the elvan princess (Sylvas), Zanza, and Elizabel- hereafter referred to collectively as 'team B') received word of a mysterious thing called the Archivist. Deciding to let the somewhat more extreme and eminently capable heroes rest, team B went out in search of the Archivist. As it would happen, the Archivist was not a person, but a sentient device that supposedly existed before mortal creation did. The theory runs that it may have the power to help repel the voidspawn. Funnily enough, the device itself fell into the possession of one Cara Darby Wight. Team B actually came into contact with Cara and a number of her friends from Orange Bend, but were forced to stand against a major voidspawn attack while the children fled. They could not find the children after that. Team B returned to the ship with their news. Before the B team could return to the ship, our heroes saw a horrifying sight. Rising on the horizon was a huge, dark mass, like a second moon. It writhed with tentacles and distant specks of thousands of voidspawn seemingly flaking off of it. They urged Veller to speed the repairs as much as possible and, almost the instant they could be off again, they headed for what might just possibly be the worst threat Tirisea has ever faced. Whatever it was, it began drifting northward in the direction of Crag. Traveling for more than a day they came fist upon the site of its origin. The party found nothing but a massive hole in the ground, more like a geological feature than a the dark pits they had previously seen voidspawn crawling from. The thing seemed to have come from underground somehow and as far as they could tell, was not even slowing down on its trip towards the north. Making use of Dal and Timmeron's specialties in time magic, the ship sped north towards Crag in the hope that they might make it in time to mitigate a horrible disaster. But before they could arrive they saw on the pale blue horizon a great bridge of sparkling light, bright enough to be seen from a days ride away. It seemed to be spearing upward into the sky, connecting somehow with the massive voidspawn that floated above the earth. Suddenly the light vanished, taking along with it the moon-like voidspawn and, as far as the party could tell, a large number of its cohort of smaller horrors. Approaching the city of Crag, they found it overrun. Not only was the city beset by a veritable army of alien beings, but a force of the church of Bartos was in the process of trying to defend the city. The High Justicar of Bartos approached, inviting them to join together in the defense without worry of reprisal for past incidents. The party joined immediately. Making use of their varied skills, the Chosen of Astor reaped a bloody harvest, carving devastation into the ebon ranks of gnashing teeth and claws. The ravaged city was safe again, but what had become of the massive- and likely queen- voidspawn? According to reports from the orcish guards and the paladins of Bartos, the bridge of light had come from the castle's high tower, called into being by a group of children and an old orc. With a request to stay in touch and share information about voidspawn threats, the High Justicar of Bartos bid our heroes farewell. The party immediately set their sights on the castle. Being denied entrance through the main gates- King Grakk was refusing to see anyone- Sajaina devised a quick plan to break into the castle through a window. Somewhat hesitantly (except Sal, who was rather excited), the party forced their way into the castle. It was almost eerily easy. Grakk, though, was less than pleased. However, when Grakk heard that the party had been a key force in defending his city he agreed to escort them to the top of the castle as long as they agreed to share anything they happened to learn. The cause of our heroes may have been somewhat aided by Grakk's incredulity that someone would actually force their way into his castle. He couldn't seem to bring himself to be too outraged, overcome as he was by astonishment. On the roof, they made use of their various investigative talents, Sal's magical knowhow and Baygrith's Ectoplasmic Detector Goggles to look into the great magic that had been at work on the roof. They discovered that some great teleportation magic had been at work, apparently trying to force the queen of the voidspawn to return home. But some outside force had meddled with the spell, causing the energy to fluctuate unpredictably. The spell was meant to effect only the queen, but it had also backlashed upon the children s well. Sal was able to detect three possible locations the children could have ended up: The Tower of Apotheosis, the Coral Isles, or the world of the voidspawn. They shared the vagueries of this information with Grakk. In the proccess of explanation, Baygrith sold his Detector Goggles to Grakk for twice their worth (500 coins). They neglected to tell Grakk that they knew where the children- and the orc- might be. They were beginning to suspect that the orc with the children was Ulagg- who had apparently escaped the prisons of Bartos. Sajaina, as she does, snuck off to investigate her suspicions that the party was being spied on. She met an orcish shaman in one of the castle towers. He offered her a job: she was to steal something for him an he might be able to provide the party with some assistance in the future. He was also willing to pay her. As she does, Sajaina took the chance to steal something from the tower before she left. She met the party on their way back down from the roof, confirming that the orc shaman thought Ulagg had been with the children as well. They were thanked by Crag's military leader for their defense of the city, after which they left. Once they were back on the ship, Travize used his newfound ability to telepathically reach out to people to communicate with Ulagg. The connection was very hard to maintain. He was indeed with a few of the children. The Archivist, he said, was not with him. He was in the world of the voidspawn. The connection broke. Given the events of the past day, our heroes took a quick rest, then decided it was high time they take the Night Maiden up on her offer to answer questions abouse vpidspawn and the dangers of crossing realities. The woods of eternal night loomed ever closer and with great trepidation, they disembarked the small transport vessel Veller had leant them and walked beneath the shade of the trees . The party found itself greeted by a strange duo. One spirit, like a deer, was made all of spindly muscle, while the other was more bulk and tree-bark skinned. They offered to lead the heroes to the Night Maiden, but only if they could first catch the two spirits. They vanished in a flicker of shadow and shade, leaving their hunters alone in a glade of twilight. But where they alone? The glade as filed with the quiet sussuruss of creeping things and the errie sensation of too intelligent eyes all around. For his part, Travize took a few steps into the clearing and was suddenly hurled backards to land hard upon the ground. Despite this setback, and much to the mild concern of his companions, he walked into the open clearing twice more, being hurled away both times. Confused and themselves unaffected by whatever was happening, the party took a few moments to consider the trees around them coming to life. Walking with too much grace for mere things of leaf and bark, they began to approach the heroes, anger and violent intent clear in their movements. The heroes ran, choosing one of the two roads ahead of them almost at random. But the forest in which they walked behaved with odd rules. Things like gravity and space worked differently here, and multiple layers of the same forest seemed to present themselves above their heads and beneath the soil at their feet. Perlapae's divine magic was able to offer them guidance though, and she helped lead them through the seeming maze of oddly shifting ground and bizzare geography. They found the two spirits and came at last to the fountain of the night Maiden. The Night Maiden didineed answer their questions, but left the party with anew conundrum in the process. The voidspawn, she explained, were angry at our world for a reason. They wanted to exterminate it. This was purely a war of survival and revenge as far as they were concerned. Lukragg, it turns out, had greatly angered the hive queen by dragging her subjects into our world to use as fodder in his battles. Our world had tortured and batered her children, and she would make us pay for it. But there was a way to stop her. The Archivist was the key to all of this. It's purpose was as a passive observer, to catalogue the events of the world. But it had also worked the magic atop the castle of Crag, and it may know how to lock the queen voidspawn in her world. As if this task was not already daunting, she also mentioned that her 'brother'- the being of pure light and order- was getting closer, and reminded the heroes that the time to fight him was approaching. On top of it all, she also confirmed that Albert had somehow survived the sundering immpoed upon him by None. His spirit- or some part of it- likely lingered somewhere. He may not be able to act directly, but his influence was clear in some recent events. She lead the way to the Night Pool which would allow anyone who stepped inside to immediately teleport to the location or person viewed within, leaving the group to make their choice. Would they beg her help venturing into the world of the voidspawn to save Ulagg and whichever of the children joined him, or would they go to the Coral Isles to recover the Archivist first. Deciding that the Archivist was their primary target, the group asked if the Night Maiden could send some supplies to Ulagg and the kids, hopefully increasing their chances of survival until the party could arrive. She agreed, sending the offered foodstuffs and other assorted items to the voidspawn world, hopefully close enough for the lost Tiriseans to find. Staring into the Night Pool, The Chosen prepared themselves to step through. Category:Quests